We must find a balance between the military protecting us from our enemy’s at home and abroad; and protecting us from contaminated sites with DU and other breakdown products, that are human carcinogens, that they have created. I support the militaries, but the militaries need to understand that they are making us sick! From open burning / open detonations (OB/OD) to blowing-up munitions on land and in the water. While they reduced the energetic threat, but they increase the human health and environment threat. What’s sad is that the technologies are already developed for environmental friendly disposal, but the governments do not want to pay. That means tax revenues will go down as we continue to make the tax payer sick. The number one killer today: cancers, “a man-made disease”. Time for an International Conference at the United Nations starting with “underwater munitions and ending with OB/OD”. Militaries should only be excluded from OB/OD and underwater detonation during time of war or has a “last resource” in the face of risk or uncertainty. Let put our Veterans back to work, developing policy to protect the tax payer from the contaminates and clean-up both underwater and land based munitions sites.

Crusade to eliminate ‘ticking time bombs’ sitting beneath world’s waters 

“We all have our own battles to fight and this is mine.” These are the fighting words of Terrance Long, founder and director of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM).

Based in The Hague, Long’s organisation is on a mission to rid the world of “millions” of tonnes of weapons rotting in seas and oceans across the globe.

The world’s waters, says Long, have become a dangerous “garbage dump” for these unwanted military munitions, ranging from highly explosive conventional ordnances to chemical weapons.

It’s a stark warning that Long doesn’t attempt to sugar coat. “If the underwater munitions aren’t neutralized or recovered from our waters in the near term then the ocean will die and we will cease to exist on this planet.”

A retired Canadian military engineer and an expert in explosive ordnance disposal, Long spent 20 years, both in the army and later for various NGOs, clearing land mines.
It was this experience that led Long to believe the same work could and should be done for the same weapons sitting at the bottom of the water.

“Because I’m a weapons expert, in my own mind I’m obligated to address this issue. There is something I can do about it, so I will.”

It’s a problem that has been ticking away for over 70 years. As Long explains, weapons, like most things, have an expiration date and need to be disposed of. By the end of the Second World War a solution was needed and during the Potsdam Conference of 1945 an agreement was made to rid stockpiled weapons by dumping them into the water, most notably the Baltic Sea.

According to Long, “That’s when a number of countries from around the globe started dumping their munitions, dating back from the First World World and continued doing so up until the 1970s.”

One of the biggest issues now facing Long and the IDUM is locating exactly where all the world’s munition dumping sites are located and exactly how many weapons there are.

“What we do know is that there are 400,000 tonnes of chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea alone. On a global scale, we estimate there are more than 10,000 dumping sites of chemical and conventional weapons.”

According to Long, these corroding weapons are posing an ever increasing danger to the environment and to us.

“They’re full of contaminates like lead, mercury, picric acid and TNT. Most are known carcinogens that we now have in our marine environment, that will persist there for 10,000 years. Our oceans cannot sustain that.”

He continued: “This really is a ticking time bomb. My greatest fear is that our international community will allow them to corrode to where we no longer have a means to detect the contaminates when the metals are gone.”

Despite the dire warnings, Long stresses there is hope: “This is absolutely a problem we can fix…in most cases if we remove the source contaminant, we remove the problem.

“But this issue needs to be addressed on a global scale, with a collective response, right now, with an urgent United Nations conference on all underwater weapons.”
In order to do this, Long and the IDUM continue to work for the creation of an internationally binding treaty on all classes of underwater munitions. The end game, says Long, is all about “protecting our oceans and saving them for our children.”

Text: Susannah Palk

Underwater Munitions Risk Assessment Panel for Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta Georgia

CDC convene a panel of subject matter experts (SMEs) in a variety of disciplines related to chemical weapons safety to assess the potential risk posed by ocean dumped munitions, particularly chemical munitions, in conjunction with the U.S. Army’s plans and current programs for mitigation, prevention, and control of chemical agent hazards from this material. The expert panel will provide individual recommendations and observations with regards to risk, proposed or current activities and programs, and identify any corrective actions or other mitigation measures based on each member’s expertise.

CDC believes that the use of a focused Expert Panel to review the potential risk of these ocean dumped munitions and develop approaches to mitigate potential risks identified will strengthen our approach to worker and public health protection. IDUM is proud and honored, to be a member of the Underwater Risk Assessment Panel for CDC.

Red, White, & Blue Charity Gala, 16 April 2016, The Hague (together with the American Women’s Club of The Hague)

The American Women’s Club of The Hague is a “home” for women in any way affiliated to the USA. Founded in 1930, the AWC is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing opportunities for social and educational activities for English-speaking women. The AWC actively engages in philanthropic and community service projects in The Hague region, throughout the Netherlands and in the larger global community.

Visit the web-site to learn more: http://www.awcthehague.org/site/

Every year the American Women’s Club of The Hague organizes a charity event that helps to raise money for many non-profit organizations working together to achieve different causes. This year, three organizations received support from the amazing women of the American’s Women Club: ‘Look Good Feel Better,’ ‘Stahili Fund,’ and ‘SPOSA Child.’

‘Look Good Feel Better’ – Look Good Feel Better for women at MCH Antoniushove in The Hague is a community service program that provides useful information specifically tailored to help women deal with the appearance-related side effects of cancer treatment. Guided by experienced volunteers from the cosmetic industry, patients learn how to care for their skin and apply make-up to help minimize the appearance related side-effects of your treatment.

‘Stahili Fund’ – Working with families and communities in rural Kenya, Stahili promotes education tool to end exploitation, keep children together, and break the cycle of poverty. While most of the children that Stahili supports have either endured abuse and exploitation in an orphanage or have faced other vulnerabilities, they have loving relatives or members of the community who want to care for them, but cannot due to severe poverty. Stahili empowers the children’s guardians and allows them to give the children a life they deserve.

‘SPOSA Child’ – Based in the Netherlands, Stichting SPOSA Child’s mission (Save and Protect our Sexually abused child) is rehabilitation and healing of sexually and physically abused children, through the gift of education on the island of Negros in the Philippines. The SPOSA CHILD Educational Scholarship Fund covers costs such as uniforms, books and other school materials, physical education, transport to/from school, meals, and reintegration counseling.

The International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions has attended the event as one of the proud sponsors that helped by raising money and awareness with the generous donations to these foundations.

With welcoming dinner, silent auction (for which IDUM has donated a Canadian basket), and a bidding auction (for which the Executive Manager of IDUM volunteered her boxing lessons) the American Women’s Club of The Hague’s Red, White, & Blue Gala has raised approximately €30,000 for the three beneficiaries: ‘Look Good Feel Better,’ ‘Stahili Fund,’ and ‘SPOSA Child.’

Please Sign Petition – Ask Friends to Help Save our Ocean (Cannot touch munitions without Chemical Protection, but it OK for the Fish, Hmm…)

Cooperative meeting with Royal Dutch Shell, 23 March 2016, The Hague

Royal Dutch Shell – is a multinational Oil and Gas Company. It is the seventh (7^th) largest company in the world. It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, and has 44,000 service stations worldwide.

On 23 March 2016, the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) has met with the representative of the Environmental Department of Royal Dutch Shell in its Global Headquarters in The Hague.

During the informal lunch many possibilities of mutual cooperation were discussed, as the importance of the underwater munitions, and their potential impact on the industry is imminent.

The founder of the IDUM, Mr. Terrance Long, has emphasized, “Munitions can be found in major quantities in every ocean in the world. They can be found from a reservoir in Jakarta, Indonesia to the pristine lakes of the Swiss Alps at the foot of the Edger to the Great Lakes of North America. In addition to those dumped at sea, a vast number of munitions have been abandoned in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and inland waterways. Former inland sites remain largely unrecognized, and are today found near many populated areas. In some cases, they share the same waters used by communities for human consumption and irrigation purposes.”

During the meeting was discussed: the importance of underwater munitions for private industries and companies. Private companies, among others, should be one of the most important supporters of the cleanup of the underwater munitions, as the connection can produce a lot of benefits. Besides leaving better seas and oceans for the next generations, and improving the state of the marine environment, it means more jobs, more opportunities, more economic and financial benefits, more efficient work of the industries, and many other great opportunities that come with the clean environment.

IDUM always takes actions, and having organized already five (5) International Dialogues, proposed a possibility of organizing the next dialogue in The Hague, in cooperation with Royal Dutch Shell. The development work on cooperative projects is to be continued.